50 Years Ago Today: Donald Richie’s The Films of Akira Kurosawa first published

It is exactly 50 years since, on February 1, 1965, writer and film critic Donald Richie‘s seminal book The Films of Akira Kurosawa was published.

It was the first book written in the English language dedicated to Kurosawa’s films, and it formed (and still forms) the foundation through which practically all discussion on Kurosawa’s works is conducted in the west. Richie’s book also had a wider influence in shaping the then fledgling academic discipline of film studies.

On a far smaller scale, it is also fairly certain that this website would not exist without Richie’s writings.

The Films of Akira Kurosawa went through a number of revisions over the years, with the black-covered 3rd edition published after Kurosawa’s death in 1998 being the final and most authoritative. Richie himself passed away in 2013.

For more information about the book and other books that discuss Kurosawa and his films, see Books on Akira Kurosawa. What is your history and relationship with Richie’s The Films of Akira Kurosawa?